Firefighter and Veteran with Stage 4 Cancer Gets Mortgage Paid Off by Nonprofit: ‘So Humbling,’ Wife Says

One night in May, after returning to the firehouse after battling a fire, Emily Broderick received a text from her husband, Mike Broderick, complaining of stomach pains.

“It was actually the night before my birthday,” Emily, 46, tells PEOPLE. After he went to the bathroom and saw that his urine was brown, she insisted he go straight to the emergency room.

Mike, 51, and Emily, who have been married for 25 years and have four children, initially thought he had kidney stones. But after going to the hospital, Mike learned he had cholangiocarcinoma, or bile duct cancer.

It is not clear how Mike, a firefighter and military veteran, contracted the rare disease. “He’s honestly the healthiest person I know,” says Emily. “Cancer was the last thing on our radar.”

Mike Broderick.

Emily Broderick

In October, Building Homes for Heroes stepped in to help Mike — whose stage 4 cancer treatment is covered by insurance but not fire department disability — by paying off his mortgage, giving him and his family one less thing to worry about.

“I don’t know what to say,” a visibly moved Mike said in a video shared by the New York nonprofit when he and Emily learned of the gift. “It just means a lot to me.”

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Mike and Emily first met in 1994 and married four years later. The same year they got together, Mike enlisted in the military – and was a first responder when the Pentagon was attacked on 9/11.

After he and Emily left Washington, DC, where he was stationed, to start a family in Iowa, Mike joined the National Guard and became a firefighter—a job he held for 16 years.

“The number of firefighters who come to sit and spend time with him is amazing,” says Emily. “They were amazing.”

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And while getting up and running errands isn’t always easy, Emily says her husband, who is now on a desk job due to his illness, “tries to be positive.”

“He doesn’t give up,” she says. – He doesn’t know how to stop.

Emily and Mike Broderick.

Emily Broderick

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Tyler Mark, Mike’s friend and fellow Des Moines firefighter, introduced the Brodericks to building homes for heroes. Founded in 2006 after the 9/11 attacks, the organization has donated more than 300 homes to veterans.

“He actually came to the hospital when Mike had an infection here in Des Moines, and he introduced himself to me,” Emily tells PEOPLE. “He said, ‘I’m on this board of directors [for Building Homes for Heroes]and I’m going to try to make it happen so we can pay off your mortgage and Mike can focus on his fight against cancer.'”

“Mike and I burst into tears,” she adds.

Mike and Emily Broderick with their children.

Emily Broderick

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In an interview with ABC affiliate WOI-DT, Mark said Mike spent “his entire adult life [giving] back to the community and the country.”

“Mike always stepped up and answered the call when others needed help and he always did it quietly and professionally,” he said. “Now is the time for Mike to focus and take care of himself and the community to help Mike.”

Mike and Emily Broderick with their children.

Emily Broderick

With the organization’s help, another friend of Mike’s started a GoFundMe to help provide financial support for the Broderick family. Emily says the generosity shown to her family was “so humbling and profound.”

“There is help everywhere, but we could never have imagined this,” Emily tells PEOPLE. “That was the best gift I never wanted to receive.”

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Source: HIS Education